“Scaling Great Heights”

Recuro is Michael Gorton’s 14th startup. Having built that many companies, the CEO of Recuro— An adventurer at heart—is aware of many of the potholes that slow down younger entrepreneurs. “I believe in hiring the best talent and learning their strengths and weaknesses,” he says. “I believe you should not bring your ego to the office. Founders have a responsibility to the company's success, not the elevation of their personal egos.” For Michael, persistence is the number one asset all entrepreneurs should possess. “We get knocked down and kicked in the teeth a lot. Our job is to get back up with a smile, figure out what we did wrong, and go again.”

A quintessential entrepreneur, mentor, and company builder, Michael leads the Recuro Health team, which includes several leaders from the early years at Teladoc, where he served as the founding CEO pioneering an industry-changing care model that created a new efficiency paradigm in healthcare by delivering physicians to patients nationwide in under 12 minutes for $35. Michael’s decades of experience as a strategic visionary, impacting the telecommunications, music, and healthcare industries include a leadership role as a founder of Principal Solar, where he applied his business expertise, scientific education, and training to the renewable energy sector -- a strong voice and proponent of solar power.

Michael is a support system to the budding entrepreneurs who are trying hard to establish themselves. According to him, success comes from hard work, a great idea, and individuals who are willing to help along the way. “I have had many great mentors, without whom, success would have been far more difficult. I work with several organizations as a mentor namely The Health Wildcatters and The Capital Factory,” he adds.

“I write a lot, speak at events, and do a large number of podcasts with the intention of passing on some of the knowledge learned along the way. I use LinkedIn to connect to entrepreneurs and often do Zoom calls to listen and help when possible.”

Some of the leadership lessons Michael has learned in his impressive career experience include that culture is critical for success. Everyone should know what the company stands for and be able to recite its core values Every employee should own a piece of the company. With ownership, they wake up on Monday morning, excited about accomplishing the company's objectives. Michael insists on dreaming BIG, always, and inspiring the team with passion for the end goal. Success comes from finding the most efficient path, and collaborative efforts from the team to drive that path.

According to Gorton, success in the corporate world has a lot to do with work ethic and dedication to the fundamentals of the company, but it is also a function of balance.People work better when they live better and living better means that they balance out work with adventure, family, and fun. “In my corporate environments, we all work significantly more than 40-hour weeks , but we also play harder and know each other’s personal objectives. It all becomes part of a larger family with a big “change the world” objective.”

When Michael was building Teladoc with his team, they were the market leader. “Lots of companies copied what we did, but we stayed focused on the end game and did not allow the competition to interfere with our progress. By the same token, it is also important to remember the lessons of Sun Tsu. We need to study and learn from what our competition is doing!”

His new company, Recuro’s biggest achievements include generating almost $9 million in topline revenue in the first year. As a result, their stock price has increased, leading to Recuro signing contracts with major Fortune 500 companies and attracting the best talent, Board and advisors. For Gorton, the reason is simple, “we are developing protocols that will save patient dollars and catch or prevent disease before it becomes dangerous.That will ultimately contribute to fixing our broken healthcare system.”

The company is in the final stages of a paramount acquisition that will quickly deliver a new version of care in all 50 states. In addition, they are developing genomic protocols to establish a baseline for every member/customer.Michael believes that the Digital Medical HomeTM introduced by Recuro will have an even bigger impact than the telemedicine delivered by Teladoc.